This invention relates to coordination of size, shape and color of dowel pins with sleeves for sequential preparation of dental dies related to dental prosthetics.
At present, dental tooth-die pins which hold tooth dies for being custom-shaped by dental artisans have uniform size, form and color to fit into uniformly matching die-pin sleeves on dental models. Valuable time is consumed by the dental artisans to examine tooth dies repeatedly to assure placement of tooth die pins into correct die-pin sleeves. Errors of identification and placement of the tooth dies occur frequently.
Frequently also, the tooth-die pins are not oriented accurately and held rigidly for precision shaping to dental-bite optimization.
Dentists and their patients suffer cost and human-factor consequences accordingly.
There are known tooth-die pins, sleeves and related dental systems, but not with the reliability and accuracy of tooth-die orientation, the pin-holding rigidity, the convenience of pin insertion and removal and the prevention of error of insertion of dental-die pins into die-pin sleeves taught by this invention.
Examples of most-closely related known but different dental devices and systems are described in the following patent documents:
Objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a dental-die pin and sleeve coordination system which:
snap-locks dental-die pins into die-pin sleeves quickly and conveniently;
orients the dental-die pins in the die-pin sleeves with high positioning accuracy and with high repetition accuracy in accordance with a design objective for separate teeth, for pluralities of teeth and for total dental modeling;
holds the dental-die pins in the die-pin sleeves rigidly while being shaped, measured, analyzed and sculptured;
prevents release of the die pins and teeth dies on them from the die-pin sleeves by tipping and upside-down orientation of bases of dental models in which the die-pin sleeves are situated;
allows quick and easy release of the dental-die pins from the die-pin sleeves with a light pulling action; and
prevents errors or selection of the die-pin sleeves into which the die pins containing teeth dies are inserted by dental artisans.
This invention accomplishes these and other objectives with a dental-die pin and die-pin sleeve coordinative interlocking system which includes a dental-die pin with a tooth-anchor port ion anchored in a tooth-die base and a sleeve-insertion portion inserted removably in a die-pin sleeve that is anchored in a dental-model base. The sleeve-insertion portion of the dental-die pin includes a pin section that fits designedly into a sleeve section of the die-pin sleeve, a pin-index section having one or more index projections that fit predeterminedly in one or more index receptacles in a sleeve-index section of the die-pin sleeve for receiving the index projections. The sleeve-insertion portion of the die pin includes a pin-taper section with a pin taper that fits predeterminedly in a sleeve-taper section of the die-pin sleeve and has a sleeve-taper angle that is reciprocal to a pin-taper angle. A pin lock section of the die pin includes a pin lock recess that is predeterminedly aligned with a sleeve lock recess in a sleeve lock section of a die-pin sleeve. A pin lock which includes an expansion-tensioned expandable locking member is extended intermediate the pin lock recess and the sleeve lock recess. The dental-die pin and the die-pin sleeve include predeterminedly color-coded identifier marking. A plurality of sizes of the dental-die pins which are color-coded mate with a plurality of sizes of the die-pin sleeves which are similarly color-coded in a system of coordination of dental-die pins with mating die-pin sleeves to prevent mismating errors by dental artisans.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.